Close Your Eyes
by LinkLuver3
Summary: "Because… I know I can close my eyes and things will be the same when I open them. Like, I'm safe. And I know nothing bad will happen even though I can't see anything." "Why?" A simple answer; it spilled right out of my mouth. "Because you're here." AU


**Hey guys! This is just a little fic I whipped up. It's kind of based off something I've been going through, but whatves. Hope you enjoy! :D**

**This is dedicated to someone I know. Oh, and Patrick Stewart.**

* * *

There it was again. The grin that made me want to sigh in unholy pleasure.

We were lying on his huge basement couch, facing opposite ways with our legs stretched out parallel to the other person. The sofa was so wide that we could both lay comfortably side-by-side and long enough that my bare toes only brushed at his knees. Books lay open upon our laps and the sun leaked in the late hour through the small window.

I was unbelievably happy.

Link had been telling me about the main character of his book. I couldn't make out the title from here, but had he told me it was set in the 1850's on one of Hyrule's old goat-driving ranches, and the protagonist (Johnny?) was just about to set off on his first real "drive".

The grin came about when Johnny's father explained what a saloon was. A flash of even white teeth was all it took for a warm feeling inside me to bubble pleasantly.

I grinned back at him, consequently of the warmth, and suddenly Link burst out laughing.

"What!" I demanded, my cheeks prepping to turn bright red, as they do almost every hour of my fifteen-and-a-half-year-old existence.

The sixteen-year-old (darn him for being older) laughed again. "Nothing, Zellie," he chuckled. "Just that your dimple is so charming."

"Shut up," I muttered, making his mouth stretch wider. I hated my dimple, and he knew it. I never got why everyone seems to think they're so attractive. It's just an indentation in my skin. You probably can't even see it now that my face is a tomato.

Not that I didn't appreciate its attractive qualities sometimes.

After a minute silence stretched between us once more as we went back to our stories. It was a typical summer day for us. I didn't want to go to the pool this afternoon and he wasn't up for a walk, so we grabbed books and took refuge in the cool basement until the sun went down and we could stargaze.

We agreed it was our favourite part of summer. Stargazing, anyway.

I kind of lied a teensy bit, though. The stargazing wasn't really the thing I enjoyed most, thought it was part of it. Really, what I love is being around Link.

He makes me feel so incredibly amazing, and all these adjectives like loved and special and comfortable just can't encompass it completely.

My book didn't seem as interesting anymore. I tilted my head back and rested it on the soft arm of the couch, my blonde hair twisting under my neck. My eyelids fell quietly shut.

Maybe five minutes passed before I heard my name.

"Zelda?" A quiet voice.

"Mm?" I hummed sleepily.

"Are you asleep?"

"Yes…"

He emitted a small noise, like a scoff and a sigh together. "Well, you better arouse yourself before we go ogle at the heavenly bodies… On second thought, I'll just keep referring to it as 'stargazing'."

"I'm up…"

"I don't believe you."

"Wake me when it's time…"

"See, Zellie. You're being challenging."

"Mm…" I was only half-listening to the actual words. His low, tranquil voice was simply making it harder to stay conscious.

"I believe punishment is in order for this exigent behaviour."

"Mm..?"

"Indeed. I believe it is time for a tickle attack."

I froze, my heart nearly stopping. My eyes snapped open and I lifted my head to look at him.

Link's mouth spread into a mischievous grin.

_Oh, snap._

I lunged for the stairs, almost making it off the couch before he grabbed me by the waist. I shrieked in terror and flailed my arms wildly in an attempt to shake him off, but he merely ducked, rolling us onto the floor, and then started to tickle. Unable to shout at him to stop, I yelped and squirmed and giggled hysterically. He was laughing, partly from amusement and partly because I was getting him back somewhat. His sky-high blue eyes danced. Finally I wedged my knee in between us and shoved him off of me, scrambling up toward the stairs.

He sprang up and followed me, still laughing.

* * *

It was another afternoon, similar in mood. Except the sun was already down though we hadn't eaten dinner yet. Winter vacation was about and Link and I were taking full advantage of it, stretched out on the couch once again in his basement, books in place.

The only difference was that instead of being on opposite ends of the sofa, our feet stretched to the same destination, and his arm was looped comfortably around my (sixteen-year-old) shoulders.

It wasn't as though this was anything unusual now. Most of the time we sat closer together or lay at the same end. And often we reclined upon the other's person, a head on a shoulder or torso, legs across laps or other legs, arms embracing what they will. It was mutually both comfortable and comforting.

I was half-reading my own book, half-reading Link's. Well, perhaps the proportion was more like seven-eighths favouring his. The novel he held was more interesting by far; mine was some romance novel the new, twenty-something librarian squealed about: a fantasy with vampires and, I soon discovered, no plot whatsoever. It was a drag to even get through a sentence at a time.

Carefully I laid down my book upon my chest, not bothering to mark a page. Engrossed, Link took no notice, not even glancing at me when my head came to rest on his shoulder. More like near his semi-opened underarm, supported partly by a taut portion of his long-sleeved green hoodie. I read along with him for a while, but then allowed my eyelids to droop shut.

A sense of deja-vu washed over me, replaced quickly by the misty fading-in-and-out of consciousness that comes when drowsiness is present but tiredness is not.

I lost track of time, but it must've been a while before his voice cut through the fog.

"Zelda?"

Deja-vu again.

"Are you asleep?" he continued, his voice just barely a whisper.

"No," I said plainly. My voice was louder than I expected, making my insides jump a little.

"Are you sleepy?" Only a smidgen more intense in volume.

"No." As soon as I heard my name from his voice I was wide awake and intent upon his speech.

"Then why are your eyes closed?" The vibrating 'z' sound of the last word, his tongue against his teeth, was pleasant to listen to and feel in his chest.

I was quiet for a moment, thinking about my answer.

"Because I can."

"…What do you mean?"

"Because… I know I can close my eyes and things will be the same when I open them. Like, I'm safe. And I know nothing bad will happen even though I can't see anything."

"Why?"

A simple answer; it spilled right out of my mouth. "Because you're here."

"…Oh."

Not an ordinary 'oh'. I opened my eyes to see what had caused the odd undertone of the syllable, but his face was confusing. He looked back at me, and smiled. A smile, not a grin, that stretched his pale lips into an appealing curve. Also confusing. Usually Link was grin-or-nothing. But this was a new smile— a new emotion.

Brain unable to process these things to try and discover their meaning, I shut my eyes again and nuzzled into his side.

He tightened his arm around me, and that was the end.

* * *

My sides hurt from all the laughing. I tried to inform him of this but couldn't wheeze out even an intelligible sound while Link kept up his antics. He had just finished telling me an on-the-spot and uproarious tale of a pirate lost in the jungle, its plot roughly based on the movie we just saw. Having finished the story, he was attempting to relive it by romping around the street— jumping on lampposts to tap his hand to his head and gaze out into the "forest", running in circles around trees away from the "wild animals", rolling under mailboxes then darting into the shadows… I was trying to continue along our path back to my house, but it was difficult with the distraction of laughter and Best Friend Antics and a starry sky and a caressing summer night.

Finally I gave up and fell to my knees on someone's grass, shoulders shaking like an 9.0 earthquake. Link flopped back-first beside me and grinned and panted heavily. To catch my breath I relaxed beside him.

Except that didn't really work because then he folded my (sixteen-and-a-half) body into his (seventeen-year-old GR!) arms and my heart began to pound. Stupid organ. It had been doing that a lot recently, whenever I'm around him. I think it was coming on gradually but one day about three months ago I was looking at his eyes and realized I couldn't think. My body was mutinying.

We sighed contentedly in unison, then grinned at each other before taking a few quiet moments to look up at the heavens and remember. His golden-blonde hair fell into his eyes, something that I frequently reminded him looked very attractive.

"I need to get home," I commented arbitrarily.

"No you don't," Link replied matter-of-factly.

I sighed again, this time with a dramatic flair, and wiggled on the grass a bit. "You _know_ my parents still haven't forgiven you for the park incident last fall."

"Oh pish-posh. Your parents worship the very ground I tread upon."

Unfortunately that was true. "Needless to say, I must return to my abode."

"Well, you will. Eventually." Nimble as a cat he sprang to his feet, thrusting out his hand to help me up. I accepted, combing my fingers through my hair and wiping off grass stragglers, then we started again down the street. He continued, "But first I want to go to our spot."

"Noooooo!" I whined. "I wanna go hoooooome…."

"What could you _possibly_ want to do that would be more enjoyable than spending time with _me_?"

"Um, do you want the honest answer, or the lie that will make you feel better?"

He replied with a blue-eyed pouty look that said, _Ouch, that one hurt my feelings._

I replied with a _Suck it up, wimp_, and a playful shove.

Instead of pushing me back like Nine-Out-of-Ten-Times-Link would, he grabbed my hand with a grin renewed and pulled me into the nearest backyard on our route.

"Our spot" was almost exactly between our two houses. My backyard was one-fourth submerged in the dense forest preserve, and if you walked a certain distance off the trails (heading south from my yard, north from Link's), the ground would begin to slope upwards, the trees would thin, until suddenly you were standing atop a tall, wide hill that looked above the forestry and over our neighborhood. It was well-enough off the beaten path that we were the only ones who knew of its existence (at least hoped we were). It was the best spot for stargazing, daredevil sledding, and other teenage antics. Someday we were planning to measure the distance from the crest to each backyard, just to see whose was actually closer.

But anyway, it was a simple matter of stealing through our neighbor's dark-ened yards like two juvenile ninjas until we reached the woods. Link knew they (the trees) freaked me out at night; hence the holding of hands. Although even in the dark, we could navigate from almost any point we might enter the woods to the hill, today we were on our practiced way and reached the top in no time.

The stars always seemed brighter up here. Finding itself in a familiar and comforting place, my mind reflexively relaxed a little. Link pulled me down to sit next to him, my back hitting the cool grass. In barely one breath we were wrapped around each other again, as we had less than ten minutes previous.

Link fiddled with my hair. Meaning something was making him nervous.

"What's wrong?" I asked, concern and bewilderment creeping into my voice.

He took a minute before answering. "Everything's going to be different now."

"What?" The emotions were completely evident now.

"This is our last night together… Before I start my summer jobs," he added after seeing my panicked expression.

"Oh…. Well, we can still see each other!"

"One night a week, Zellie!" he sighed in frustration, his breath a hot puff. That smelled deliciously like mint and chocolate. "Sunday is my only day off. I'm gonna be working _two jobs_, one morning to afternoon and the other afternoon to almost _midnight_." Of this much I was aware.

"Well, ummmm…" I searched for something, something to reach out, grab, and show him, to demonstrate that it would be okay. My brain resorted to humor. "At least you'll have enough money to buy me presents and things!" I beamed at him.

Link laughed hard and long, making me grin harder with a sense of accomplishment. He tossed his shoulder back and away, so he was laughing up at the crescent moon. I waited for him to speak.

He sighed again, this time content and smiling that puzzling smile. It appeared more often now, I had noticed… "One day a week with you just isn't enough."

"We'll make it work," I whispered, words almost lost in the now-evident rushing of my blood. His gentle hand stroked my face, resting there.

He felt amazing.

I became lost in the intense blue of his eyes, and, consequently, his next words were a quiet, unintelligible buzz.

"What?"

"I said, close your eyes."

Time seemed to freeze. I simply stared at him, wondering why those words made my heart twist so. His eyes were unchanged, yet so incredibly close and bright, that even in this blackness I could see all the tinted flecks of blue.

"Nothing bad will happen." His words were barely audible, yet they drifted over my ears like a breeze through gossamer curtains. They echoed in the empty expanse of my mind. Empty except for him.

My eyelids fell, locking away sight. But I could feel his warm breath on my face and his arm around my back that eased a little tighter and the hair on my forehead that he brushed away and the coolness of the grass contrasting with the heat of his touch over my skin and everything and nothing at once.

It felt so natural. It felt exceedingly natural that his smooth lips should drop over mine and we should lie here like this forever. Keep kissing and be close, bodily and mentally. Remain touching under the star-infused night with nothing on our minds but this.

And what Link said was true. It wasn't bad. It was right. When we opened our eyes again, he kind of smiled and bit his lip in this adorable way. I laughed, thinking how wonderful he was, until he claimed my mouth again and I felt only him. He then pulled me closer to him, our torsos together.

"Thank you," we whispered at the exact same time, which made us giggle. I squeezed my arms around him and buried my face in his shoulder, loving him and missing him and already dreaming about the next time we would be together.

But nothing was bad.

And nothing was changed.

* * *

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